Translated material
"He must answer for each of the 30 blows." Residents of Yakutia demand that a serial killer not be allowed to go to war
In Yakutia, another serial killer is going to war instead of prison. In January 2026, a 40-year-old resident of the village of Nizhny Bestyakh, Vladimir Noev, stabbed to death his ex-wife and her friend. After his arrest, he agreed to sign a contract and in this case he would be able to avoid trial for double murder. Relatives of the victims and residents of the village are calling on the authorities not to allow the killer to escape trial. However, practice shows that these calls most likely will not be heard.
Nizhny Bestyakh is an urban-type settlement, the administrative center of the Megino-Kangalassky district of Yakutia. It is located 15 km from Yakutsk and 10 kilometers from the Nizhny Bestyakh railway station. Population – about 5 thousand people.
"Face cut, open throat wound, 30 stabs"
On the night of January 24, 2026, Noev entered the apartment of his ex-wife Kiryana Stepanova through the window. She and her friend were already asleep at that moment.
– 30 knife wounds on Kiryana’s body! She herself is tiny, weighing 45 kilos. Her whole body was cut up, her face, her throat - this monster slashed all over her with a Yakut knife,” says one of the victim’s friends , Ayuna (the names of all interlocutors have been changed for their safety). – Kiryana turned 32 years old, her baby, Noah’s daughter, is only 3 years old! He told police the girl was asleep when he committed his murders.
According to relatives, after this Noev himself called the police and waited for their arrival.
“Kiryana has long been afraid to be alone with her child. She was terribly afraid of him - he had killed a man before. And even before that, he killed another. That is, he is a serial killer, it turns out! And he is released!
The village knows that back in 2009, the Yakut City Court sentenced Vladimir Noev to 14 years in a maximum security colony for the murder of an acquaintance. According to the court file , Noev stabbed him to death with a “homemade knife,” just as he did in the murders of Kiryana and her friend.
– There were also 21 knives (!), and they also hit him with aim in the throat, neck, and cut the jugular vein. Obviously a maniac. So he then also filed a cassation - they say that there were no aggravating factors, since allegedly the mother of the deceased did not see how I killed her son. In the end, his sentence was reduced to 10 years - they decided that Noah’s actions did not cause “special suffering” to Yakovlev’s mother (the name of the murdered man). Because the mother could not “convincingly” prove in court that she saw him finishing off her son with a board with a nail. She tried to drive the killer away from her son and Noev attacked her - she ran away for help, and then returned, recalls Noev’s neighbor Aikhal .
In 2015, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed that there was no “immoral behavior” in the actions of the killer, and commuted Vladimir Noev’s sentence under the article of murder from 14 years to 10.
Previously, Noev, still a minor, was tried under the article of beating, which “negligently” led to the death of the victim (Article 111 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
“In 2004, he was already sent to a correctional colony for negligent homicide. He just turned 16. In 2007, he left, settled in the neighboring village of Maya (it’s a little larger), and in August 2008 he killed the next one,” Aikhal recalls. “To say that we are horrified that he is now being released is an understatement. Of course, being sent to the front is not a panacea - they all return freely on leave or simply run away. And they cut people again. And there is no use in complaining. We complained a year ago, when he walked the streets drunk and got into fights, he beat up at least two people I personally know. They wrote statements, of course. There was nothing for him - they established “administrative supervision”. It was during this surveillance that he killed two people.
“Armed with a Yakut knife, he cold-bloodedly attacked defenseless people. This is not just murder - it is inhuman cruelty. A criminal case has been opened. However, at the moment we have learned that Noev V. has expressed a desire to go to the SVO. This means that he can avoid full responsibility in this criminal case,” the sister of the murdered woman wrote on her Instagram. “We demand that the court pronounce a sentence before sending him to the SVO, so that he will answer for each of 30 stabs."
According to local residents, the accused expressed a desire to go to war back in January, and in March he already signed a contract. Bloggers and social network users from Yakutia are now actively reposting calls from the victim’s relatives so that the killer is not released to the front, but tried.
“According to our information, he has already signed a contract, and from the pre-trial detention center he is already being prepared to be sent to a local unit, that is, in fact, he is already free. Let me remind you that if a contract is concluded, the criminal case, even under such a serious article as murder, will not only be suspended until the end of the service - the killer will eventually not even have a criminal record. Because the case simply won’t go to court. The Ministry of Defense openly stated to some publication: they say, the article about murder is not an obstacle to concluding a contract and being sent to war, states local lawyer Alexander . – What else is the problem with the lack of a trial? The current law not only gives the opportunity to any person who commits crimes to avoid punishment or time in a colony, but also exempts them from any liability – the relatives of the victims cannot even apply for compensation. Because he was never officially found guilty. And this is not the first time in Yakutia that the perpetrators of high-profile murder cases are released because they agreed to a contract with the Ministry of Defense.
In February, the editors of Sibir.Realii wrote that a suspect in the fourth murder was detained in Yakutsk. After the first, Viktor Savvinov was released because he signed a contract and agreed to go to war against Ukraine. Which actually allowed him to commit two more murders in Yakutia in 2024. After which he was again released from punishment in exchange for a new contract and Savvinov committed another murder. Immediately after his arrest on February 15, he expressed a desire to conclude a contract.
Over a thousand military casualties
Russian soldiers, after returning from the war in Ukraine, killed and maimed at least 1,016 people, according to a study by Vestk at the beginning of December 2025.
According to the publication, returning war participants caused the death of 551 people. The military committed 240 murders, resulting in 274 deaths. In addition, 163 people died after receiving serious bodily injuries, another 78 as a result of accidents committed by “veterans.”
Other military crimes that resulted in the death of people include causing death by negligence, inducing drug use, and killings in excess of the limits of necessary self-defense.
More than half of the murders were committed by former prisoners. Of the 281 accused of killing war participants, at least 142 people had previously been in prison for similar crimes.
In addition, soldiers returning from the front wounded and injured at least 465 people.
“Veterans of the Northern Military District” have 318 cases of causing life-threatening grievous bodily harm, “Verstka” calculated. As a result, 323 people were injured. There were also 41 attempted murders, killing 48 people. As a result of 56 road accidents, 80 people were injured.
Most of the cases found about new military crimes are domestic conflicts, half of which mention alcohol and drugs.
In almost every criminal case - in 90% of cases - the judges mentioned the participation of the defendants in the war against Ukraine as a mitigating circumstance.
"He must answer for each of the 30 blows." Residents of Yakutia demand that a serial killer not be allowed to go to war